When you were at school, did you have chefs fighting for ways to please your delicate little palates?
No, nor did I.
I saw on the news tonight that there was an annual competition in UK to make a two course meal that 'would appeal to 11 year olds in school'.
The competition was open to kitchen-based staff who are involved with the daily preparation of school meals.
Presentation, creativity and preparation are all taken into account, and a maximum of £1.25 per head is allowed. One hour and a half is allowed for the competition, and dishes must conform to National Food Based Nutritional Standards.
I think back to my primary school days, in a small Cornish village, not long after the war. We walked the two or three miles to school. There were to begin with, no school meals as such. In my bag I took an egg in a small tin , and a box of brown bread and butter slices, and some fruit.
The egg was solemnly given to my teacher, who at lunchtime would boil it in a pan on the old Tortoise stove in the classroom.
I think I was one of the few' incomers', non Cornish, and can vividly remember desperately wanting a big Cornish pasty for lunch.....like the others!
But no one competed to bring us Cordon bleu meals. We just ate what we were given.
When I was a child in school in USA during the late 50's & 60's we all got whatever was served. The meals were good but certainly not that of a 5 Star Restaurant!!
ReplyDeletePampering of the childs pallet is not necessary to a good education.
JMO!!
Love,
Marilyn
xxoo
I did have terrible school dinners at a small private school in Scotland - I haven't been able to eat maccaroni cheese since, which is a shame, because I know there's nothing wrong with it except bad memories!
ReplyDeleteThe chef for our boys' college lives just behind our house. He is a wonderful chef and Son 1 started putting on quite a lot of weight with all the good (proper) food he was being given. We had to reduce what he ate at home to make up for it!
I think the French see an educated pallet (which is perhaps the opposite of a pampered pallet) as a very important part of life. And they do cook well and stay slim, compared to most of the rest of us, so I think they have a point.
I used to carry a plastic bag in my apron pocket and scoop as much as I could of the school lunch into when no-one was looking.
ReplyDeleteMy how things have changed however I am not sure that its all for the better.
I don't think the idea is to pander to delicate palates - more to get them away from burgers and chips. (With ketchup and brown sauce, of course!)
ReplyDeleteCertainly wish I could cook my lunch for £1.25!
The school meals in our village seem very well balanced and excellatn value, 3 courses and they can go back for more if they want to! We had an italian chef at our schoo who did incredible things with pasta long before Italian food was so common place in england but the thing I rememeber most of all was a tomatoe sauce which she made which seemed to have cheese or breadcrumbs in it and coated the spagetti wonderfully! I have never ofudn the recipe!
ReplyDeleteHello Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteWhen I was at a parents meeting at the secondary school of our girls I was very amazed to find all kind of pistolets, cookies, tosti, chips etc. on the list of the canteen. Times have changed! We could choose between milk, coffee or tea and 2 sorts of cookies and that was it! (The seventies ...)
It almost looks like a restaurant now ...
Bye & hugs, Carolien
Way to go, France!!! Wow, I think most kids would eat well if they had a chef planning and cooking the meals.
ReplyDeletexoxo,
Connie
Back from Seattle and feeling the GGD kicking her mummy... ;-)
In my Virginia schooldays in the 1950's, my mother packed my lunch every day. Sandwich, fruit, some cookies. Sometimes, she'd include soup in a thermos. I would buy milk in the cafeteria.
ReplyDeleteMany children bought their lunches in the cafeteria. I think it was less expensive to bring that lunch box.
The French approach surely does sound delicious.
xo
my school in Texas has awful boring food.., Why couln't I go to a french school. Everything French is good. Thank Goodness there was a small store with Hamburgers and tuna sandwiches.
ReplyDeleteyvonne
Oh I remember our school meals. I never had the money for the cafeteria in the 50's so had to take a bag lunch. They used to have a prune whip that some one would give me since they didn't want theirs. LOL these kids today are something else. My own grands are just as picky. I don't think they would care if they just had PB and Jam.
ReplyDeleteI love this! When I was in elementary school we had a lovely woman cook for us. She made award winning cinnamon rolls, orange rolls, homemade soups, pigs in a blanket, pizza, potato salad and more! Now, at my school, they ship in pizza and serve frozen sandwiches. The kids rarely get a real cooked meal. I love the image of you bringing your egg to school and coveting the other kids' pasties!
ReplyDeleteI don't think you'd be thinking like this if you could see DD's school meals. Apparently they are in inedible - and for 130€ each trimestre!
ReplyDeleteThe school lunches I had in the 60's were fantastic. All made fresh in the school kitchen. The raspberry trifle and rice pudding were to die for, also the meat and potato pie and beef stew.
ReplyDeleteWe also used to get that little bottle of milk at morning break.
In our French village, the menus for the week are posted by the school entrance and they look just as fantastic, although much more sophisticated than the delicious stodge I was used to !
Most of my school dinner memories are bad. Except the chocolate sponge pudding.
ReplyDeleteRemember 'spotted dick' and all those incredibly stodgy steamed puds? They were on the menu far too often....but then we played field hockey and netball to work it all off!
ReplyDeleteHave you visited Elizabeth at
http://giftsofthejourney.wordpress.com/ by chance? She's an American who married a Cornishman last year and lives in his village. She just participated in the Pasty Competition - you need to check it out - will make you yearn for a pasty and perhaps a visit home!!
Happy St.Valentine Day tomorrow - we have fresh snow today too.
Hugs - Mary